@ Dunc:

Hey, just wanted to bump this to let you know that I finally posted that list of Dwarf Women minis.

Hi Luke, thanks for replying to me. You’re right about the mixed bag, I suppose that’s always going to happen when something is authored by so many different people. The good thing about these sorts of games, though, is that you can take the stuff you like, rework the stuff you think needs a bit of alteration, and leave out the occasional detail that’s a bit iffy…. Some of the sourcebooks are definitely better than others! And you’re right about White Dwarf, too, it certainly had a golden age.

Dwarfs were always my favourites back in the day so definitely write a post on the dwarf minis. I shall await it eagerly!

@ Dunc:

Thanks for posting this. I think you have a good point here. The RPG was always targeted at more mature audiences than the miniature battle game, and so it’s themes were always a bit less juvenile. Before White Dwarf became a glorified mail order catalog cum elaborate commercial for the miniatures it was actually a pretty good publication.

But it was always a mixed bag. For every Death on the Reik we had something like Fimir, or Slaneshi pleasure cults and etc.

As for the list of minis I was referring to, it was mostly female dwarf minis that I was looking at, because they tend to be pretty rare. Reaper has a pretty good selection of them. In fact, I might actually write a whole post on this. I’ll just have to gather up and organize the random links scattered throughout my journal.

Thanks,

Hi there. I know you wrote this article quite some time ago but I thought it was excellent and wanted to respond. I remember coming across that offending paragraph in the Skaven background and finding it off-putting and dismissive. Like you, I thought there was no good reason for it, other than (possibly) some juvenile male fantasy about an all-male society where females are for mating with without having to talk to. This binary two-state system that you mention bothers me and I’m often struck by gender stereotyping in mainstream culture these days. But, surely, one of the opportunities which fantasy provides is to create a world where it doesn’t have to be this way. These worlds are different in so many other ways, so why is it such a leap into incredulity to have a 50/50 gender spread of significant characters in them??

I don’t know if you agree or not, but I’ve always been pretty impressed with WFRP’s gender balance (I’ve only read 1st edition so not sure of the others). The best of these seems to be Death on the Reik. Not only is the prime antagonist female but one of the keys to overthrowing her is to enlist the help of an outlaw chief, also female. This is not to mention quite a few incidental characters who are female when they just as easily could have been male, which seems to me the best indication of its un-sexist atmosphere. There are a couple of other sourcebooks with (to my mind) very decent female characters, realistically drawn and with important and believable roles in their society, random e.g. the bargewright in Death’s Dark Shadow.

I also recently read an article in an old White Dwarf magazine (the very one which spells out “sod off Bryan Ansell”) which discussed ways to even out the gender balance in RPGs. One suggestion to do with female merchants and caravan masters was very evocative storytelling and made me want to play in that game! Alongside some of the teenage-boy-pleasing fantasy tropes, there often appears to have been an encouragingly progressive strand within RPG fandom. Some of the efforts to create strong female characters or involve women gamers seem positively enlightened compared to contemporary neanderthal attitudes associated with, for example, soccer here in Britain! We don’t have to be constricted by the realities of this world and periods of our history. If natural laws can routinely be broken to allow dragons to fly and giant spiders to actually walk, why can’t we ignore some of the patriarchal tendencies of medieval history and the paucity of decent female characters in Tolkien and tear off our gendered blinkers once in a while…?

I also read your article on the Fimir today and you’ve articulated exactly why they really bothered me. I love folk and fairy lore so was vaguely aware of their fomorian heritage, and their misty, boggy abodes are suitably grim and eerie, but I just couldn’t unhook them from the necessities of their reproductive process. If you even dip your toe into what that really is, it’s pretty traumatic! I actually find it quite heartening that most gamers steered clear of them for that very reason. It’s good to know I wasn’t alone :)

I was also wondering if you still had your list of decent female miniatures and whether you could post it. I have daughters now and I’m trying to gather a small collection of models for them to use in Talisman one day, so I hopefully don’t have to answer a question of “why are they all boys?” if I manage to persuade them to play it with me. I’m always looking out for characterful models with less emphasis on having nice hair and massive breasts. Although Melfina the Blue’s observation generally holds, there are some out there!

Sorry to ramble. Great blog!

[…] other Warhammer antagonists always seemed more fun, characterful and free of controversial baggage (though not perfect). You can throw Orks, Skaven or Chaos cultists against the players, and it is going to be all fun […]

Excellent article with lots of very good points. It’s always refreshing and encouraging to see nerdy feminist dudes.

@ Melfina the Blue:

Uh, there was a really good article that I read about how Pratchet’s notions about gender issues evolved over the years. Some of his early work was like “lol, poor nice guy Rincewind can’t get laid” then over the years supporting characters like Granny Whetherwax evolved from background jokes to being central to the entire franchise and become some of the most well realized and fleshed out female characters in popular fantasy. Can’t seem to be able to find it though.

As for the boobs, you are right. Half the time the boobs don’t even make sense anatomically – like putting them on a lizard lady or something.

I think Terry Pratchett’s take on dwarves was the best. He did the no sexual dimorphism. There’s a quote which I’m now going to mangle…
“Most of dwarven courtship is finding out very carefully what sex your partner is”
So that drunk dwarf trying to headbutt you at groin level could be female or male, and you’re probably never going to know. Heck, why should it matter to you, if it doesn’t matter to them?
And while I’m at it, why are boobs the automatic add to make female? Most mammalian species only have breasts as we think of them while nursing young. You could do some very interesting things with other anatomical features and they never do. It’s always boobs. Sigh.

@ Alex:

Well, if you dig deeply enough you’ll find examples of all kinds of oddball breeding practices in wildlife. Parthenogenesis is not entirely uncommon among insects, crustaceans and some species of reptiles. So it’s not that “single sex species” can’t exist in nature. I just feel these types of species are over-represented in SF in fantasy (most settings seem to have at least one or two).

Just thought I’d chime in with another take. (Granted I know nothing about this universe, so don’t take me too seriously.)

I was wondering if there were naturally occurring Earth species that exhibited similar male to female ratios or behaviors and found this wiki about it. Apparently alpine marmots (sort of rats) have this odd, high male to female count thing.

I don’t know if it’s sexist or not, and I’d be willing to bet your interpretation is correct. Just figured I’d see if there was a way that it wasn’t sexist. No clear answer. Thanks for making me think!